Gate valve



' July 2, 1935- w. McCAU SLAND ET AL GATE VALVE Filed July 29, 1939 I N VEN TORS I n al/ace //c (nus/and 26 Patented July 2, 1935 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE GATE vALvE Wallace McCausland and Charles W. Stephen,

Bridgeport, Conn., assignors to Reading-Pratt Ckady Companyg lncl, a corporation of New Application July 29, 1930', serial No. 411,449

3' Claims. (01. 251-1 7) Our invention relates to gate valves and has partly in section, of a wedge type gate'valve'emfor an object to provide means forovercoming 'bodying: our invention; 7 locking or binding of the gate in the seat so that Fig. 2 isa view in vertical section taken subthe valve may be operated more easi1y stantially onthe line.2--2 of, Fig. 1;, Another object of the invention is to provide Fig. 3 is a fragmental sectional view taken on 5 a more effective seal between the gate and its the line 3-3 .of Fig.

seat. Fig. 4 is an enlargement of a portion of Fig. 1;

Another object of the invention isto reduce nd Wear on the bearing surfaces. Fig. 5 is a fragmental view similar to-Fig. 3

The invention is particularly useful in wedge but showin a m d fi form of 0111 invention- 1 type valves of the larger sizes. In such valves The' alve Sh wn i t d a o p e 8 the gate is usually forced into its closed posimain body or casing I0 formed witha transverse tion under heavy pressure and this in conjuncid P s a H running therethl'ough- T tion with the tapered bearing surfaces sets up ing is al o f rm wi h a n l ham r. 2

5 a substantially dragging or abrasive effect which which intercepts the pa ii and in which 8 looks or binds the wedge or gate in the valve ve a l3 D This gate s formed with seats. Such valves are frequently closed when a central web l4 and a pa r of pp y hot and during cooling of the valves unequal exposed ar flanges l5 which are faced to P pansions take. place, sometimes increasing the vide bearing Surfaces. Thesflbealihg faces are e binding efiect. It is, therefore, an object of our spaced f th pa at he top of t e valve than 20 invention to provide means for applying a lubriat the bottom to g the gate 8 wedge p cant between the gate and its seat or seats and The gate is P v d t its pp end with 8 P exerting pressure upon the lubricant to overcome of p ed h1g5 which are ed with undercut l the binding effect. grooves l'l adaptedto receive the shouldered head a lubricant which will not only serve to lubriand lowered- V cate the valve but will fill up uneven surfaces or Formed in the casing i DD S d s 0! the minute roughnesses in theengaging faces, and Chamber i2 and Surrounding the Passage ii are thus serve as a packing. A further advantage of a Da Of recesses 20 in each Ofwhich a 588i? ring applying lubricant to the valve is the fact that 2| s sc eda ring is formed w d y 30 it eliminates galling of the seating surfaces in prvjeciiihg l s 22 to P e a bearing valves used for bothhigh pressure and high temwrench or key with which the ring is tightly perature. screwed into the recess." Each seat ring is pro- It is common practice in gate valvesto use a vided with abeari a 3 at t e Out d ring screwed into the valve body and against and. againstthese faces the flanges I 5 of'the gate which the gate seats. One of the difficulties reare seated when the valve is in closedposition. sulting from such an arrangement is that leak- Each seatring iS Provided in its bearing flfi 23 age is aptto occur through the joint between with an. annular groove 24 which is connected the seat ring'and the valve body. It is an obby a plurality of transverse ducts 25 with an anject of our invention to provide an annular pocket nular channel. 26 formed betweenthe casing Ill 40 for lubricant at the base of the seat ring which and the rear edge of the ring. Eachchannel 26 serves to pack the joint between the seat ring communicates at one side with a passage 21 leadand the valve body and prevent leakage thereing out laterally from the valve casing. Anelthrough. An advantage of this construction also bow fitting 28 is screwed into each passage and 4; lies in the fact that the lubricant serves to 'pre connects with a tubular fitting 29 which serves as vent corrosion between the seat ring and the areservoir for a lubricant. The fitting 29 is inbody and makes it easier to remove the seat ring 'ternally threaded to receive a screw plug 30. By for replacement whenever desired. turning the plug 30 lubricant in 'the reservoir Other objects and advantages of our invention may be forced throughthe elbow 28, passage 21, .10 will appear in the following description of a prechannel 26 and ducts 25 into the annular groove ferred embodiment and thereafter the novelty 24. and scope of the invention will be pointed out in The operation of the valve will now be readily the claims. understood. When the gate is in closed position, In the accompanying drawing: as shown in Fig. 1, and it is desired to open the Figure l is a view partly in side elevation and valve, if the gate sticks, it is merely necessary to 55 Another object of the invention is to employ Of a Valve stem '9 y which e K e is a ed 25 turn the screw plug 30 and thereby force lusaid surfaces and permitting .easy operation of the valve. Usually the. coacting surfaces vof the gate and its seats are in fairly close contact throughout, being separated from each other by a'fraction of a thousandth of an inch. Thus. even though the lubricant used is quite fluid, it will, nevertheless, serve not only to break the adhesion between the contacting parts butalso to pack the joint between the gate and the seat rings, when the valveis closed, providing a per fect seal against leakage. However, we flnd it preferable in most cases to use a fairly stiif grease for the lubricant or a soap compound which will haye a tendency to remain in the low spots of the cooperating faces, after the valve has been opened, thus insuring a tight seal of the valve when closed. The nature of the lubricant used may be varied considerably without. departing from the spirit and scope of our invention. Preferably, it is of a waxy nature, although as explained above, under certain circumstances a much more fluid material can be used to advantage.

It will be observed that lubricant in the channel formed at the base of the seat ring 2| serves to pack the joint between the ring and the valve body so that leakage cannot occur through this'joint when the valve is closed. i

when the valve is used for high pressure fluids there will be considerable back pressure in the reservoirs 29. The screw plugs 30 may not flt so tightly into the reservoir 29 as to prevent the lubricant *from being forced out between the screwthreads of the plugs and reservoirs. .For this greasoh, we find it desirable to use a check valve in the lower end of each reservoir. As shown in the drawing, this consists of a ball II which seats against the lower end of the reservoir' and is held to its seat by a spring 32. The ball valve will yield when the plug 80 is screwed into the reservoir, permitting lubricant to be forced into the gate valve, but will resist pressure tending toforce the lubricant back and out of the reservoir.

The construction shown in Fig. 5, is similar to that already described except thatinstead of using two reservoirs, one for each seat ring, we employ a single reservoir with ducts leading to the seat rings. 'As shown in'the drawing, the valve body flu is provided with a boss I! atone side into which is screwed the elbow-fitting 28a. The latter carries a reservoir, not shown, which reserg voir is of the same character as those shown in Figs. 1 and 2. The seat rings 21a are similar to the seat rings 2| and a channel! is formed about the base of each-seat ring. Ducts a lead from said channels to a common passage 35 with which the elbow Ila communicates. It will be undersffod that with this construction, lubricant force into the elbow Ila will find its way into both of the channels Ila and thence through openings a to the grooves formed in the seating faces of the seat rings.

claims.

While we have described avalve using a of the solid wedge type. it will be evident our invention could also be wi to a employing a split wedge in which means areprovided for spreading the wedges apart against the seats after the valve has been moved position. It will-also be understood invention can be employed with gatevalvesin which they sides of the gate are parallel instead of being relatively inclined to form a wedge or the other parallel with the direction of movement of the gate, thusforming a single instead of a double wedge surface. It win he understood,

inthedrawingistobetakenasillustrativeand not as limitative of our invention and that we reserve the right to make such changes 'in form, construction and arrangement of parts as fall within the spirit'and scope of the following We claim:

1. A gate valve comprising a casing formed with a fluid passage therethrough, a gate slidable transversely to said passage to open and close the same, a seat ring secured in the casing surrounding said passage. the ring and casing that being formed to provide a channel therebetween.

said seat and the gate being formed with coactlng bearing surfaces, the bearing surface of the 'ring being formed with an annular groove, said ring having ducts connecting said channel and said groove. a reservoir for lubricant communieating with said channel, and means for forcing lubricant from the reservoir into said channel and thence through the ducts to the groove.

2. A gate valve comprising a casing formed with a fluid passage therethrough, a chamber intercepting said passage, a pair of spaced seat rings in the chamber surrounding the passage and screwed into the casing. a gate movable in said chamber and adaptedto seat against said rings, the. base of each ring and the casing being formed to provide an annular channel therebetween, each ring being also formed with ducts leading from said channel to the bearing surface of the ring, and means for forcing lubricant into the channel to pack the Joint between the ring and the casing and to lubricate the bearing surface of the ring through said ducts.

3. A gate valve comprising a casing formed with a fluid passage therethrough; a gateslidable transversely to said passage to open and close the same, a seat ringsecured in the casing, the ring and casing being formed to provide a channel therebetween at the base of the ring, said seat and the gate being formed with coacting bearing surfaces, the bearing surface of the ring beingformed with a groove, said ring having ducts connecting said,,channel and said groove, a reservoir for lubricant communicating with said channel, and means for forcing lubricant from the reservoir into said channel and thence through the ducts to the groove.

WALLACE MccAUsLsND. cnsnms w. STEPHEN.

10 in which one side of the valve is inclined and.

therefore, that the particular embodiment shown .1 

